Longtime girlfriend searched for man whose body was found in a van in the Memphis police impound lot

Memphis police are investigating the discovery of a man's body in a vehicle Monday that had been taken to the department's impound lot.
Daniel Connolly/USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee

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February 08, 2018 - Maris Morales, 25, speaks about her former common-law husband, Bardomiano Perez Hernandez, who was the person found dead in a van in a police impound lot. Morales says that he is the father of her youngest of her four daughters. "My girls love him so much. I know they're gonna miss him." (Photo: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)Buy Photo

She called his phone but it was switched off. She talked to his friends, called a hospital, went to the Internet to see if he'd been locked up, went to Jackson Avenue where he'd look for day labor jobs.

Maris Morales, 25, says she didn't know for sure where he was until this week.
Memphis police on Thursday identified her common-law husband, Bardomiano Perez Hernandez, age 33, as the homicide victim whose body was found in a van in a police impound lot.

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Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland responds to revelation that police failed for seven weeks to notice a body in a van that had been impounded following a violent crime.
Tom Bailey/The Commercial Appeal

The police have said they believe he'd been in the van since a Dec. 18 shooting that critically injured another man and that he was shot in the same incident.

She said that hours earlier, she had made official identification of a photo of his body, which appeared somewhat decomposed.

With the shock of the death still fresh, Morales wept, buried her face in her hands at times and said the way the police handled the case was "negligence."

"I just want justice," she said. She said the family is considering legal action and that she has an appointment with an attorney on Friday.

She gave a different spelling of her common-law husband's first name: Bardiomiano, and said he was originally from Oaxaca, Mexico and had lived in the United States for about 12 years. He's the father of the youngest of her four daughters. "My girls love him so much. I know they're gonna miss him."

Morales says she's originally from El Paso, Texas, and that they'd met online several years ago. "We were just talking and I remember he was just telling me jokes. We got along, and then we talked for a little bit on the phone."

At the time, he was living in Florida, and he paid her way so she could meet him in person.

"I was shy at first but we started to know each other more. We fell in love. And we got a place together."

They later moved to Memphis, where she has family and does remodeling work.

She said they separated last year. The only reason is that he used to drink heavily, she said, but since they broke up, his friends have told her that he had cut back on alcohol.

And she said the last time she saw him, he had come to the house to ask for the girls' shoe sizes so he could give them shoes for Christmas. He said he was going to bring diapers and milk, but didn't come back.

That was on Dec. 16, she said. The shooting happened on Dec. 18 in the 3000 block of Yale Avenue in the Binghamton area. She said soon afterward, her mother called her, said she'd heard about the shooting, and wanted her to check on the man nicknamed "Bardo."

So Morales went looking for him, and she said some of his friends weren't worried, saying things like, "He's off somewhere working."

The police director Michael Rallings and other police leaders held a news conference on Tuesday. "This incident is unacceptable and should never have happened," Rallings said.

Morales heard about the case and believed her common-law husband might be dead. That's what led her to coordinate with Perez Hernandez's relatives in other cities and officially identifying the body via photo, she said.

She said she had to fight for the authorization to make the official identification because she and her common-law husband weren't legally married.

She said Perez Hernandez doesn't have other family members in Memphis, and that the family plans to send his body to Mexico for burial. Serenity Funeral Home has charge.

Reach reporter Daniel Connolly at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.